1879 Welcome to the World	Mordecai and Maria Dursley welcome a second child into the family, naming their new daughter Corinne Niamh.
1878-1882 A Happy Family	Cori’s childhood is blissfully average and, when she’s three, her little brother is born. Life is quiet, but happily peaceful for the Dursley family. Though she is young - and, nowadays, the memories are hazy at their very best - Corinne recalls, distantly, how happy she was all the time.
1883 Orphans	Just like she cannot remember her parents’ faces, Cori does not remember when or how exactly they died – only that it was sudden and, suddenly, she and her brothers were entrusted to the care of their father’s muggle relations. She’d barely had time to try and get her feet under her when, with the best intentions, her uncle uprooted his whole life (and the family) to move to Irvingly. It was for the best that everything at the time was numbed by grief.
1884 An Inevitability	Cori is enthralled and amazed by Nico’s display, watching the floral print on their Aunt’s curtains bloom into real, beautiful flowers; she even made to clap, at the time, in a childish fit of glee, but the look on her Aunt’s face draws her up short. It is the start of a simple realization: her muggle relatives don’t like magic. (Later, she wishes she’d had the courage to tell Nico she thought what he’d done was pretty and perfect).
1885-1886 Honesty vs. Peace	When Cori’s magic appears – in hindsight, thankfully something subtle: extinguishing a candle silently, motionlessly so that her older cousin would not discover her hidingreading spot in the linen closet – she feels elation. Then elation turns to apprehension, when she can’t control it too well – she barely hides from some other girls in the neighborhood how the stems of her flower crowns, untouched, weave themselves, using her hands and hunching her shoulders – because if Aunty hears? Or her older cousin? That would be unfortunate, to say the least. But after hiding it for near on a year (albeit, unfortunately, not from the likes of nosy little brothers and overly curious younger cousins), it wears on her. Apprehension starts to border on annoyance (especially when the latter of the two boys was nothing sort of wonderous at her talents) and then annoyance dances on the fringe of resentment; she has never been a shy child, never one to let the truth get swept under the rug… Why must she censor herself now? Yet, Cori knows on a fundamental level that magic is something that discomfits not only most of the muggles in Irvingly, but also the two most prominent female figures in her life. The simple wish to not to cause anymore disturbances in her relatives’ daily lives – there had already, according to her older couain, been an argument between Uncle and his wife since the family became immersed in the Wizarding World (though about what, she has no idea), and Cori would very much not like to give her older cousin anything else to blame her and her siblings for (she already has enough to whine about as is) – and the feeling that she is lying causes quite the dissonance in the girl. In the end, she goes to Nico. He offers his support – he is, and has, always been the best big brother – and, begrudgingly, she works out the best time to tell everyone is at dinner one night. The minor disbelief from her aunt sparks enough resentment in her that the one of the candles on the table sputters, bugles, and turns a crisp blue before dying out altogether. There is no doubt that youngest Dursley girl is, indeed, magical.
1889 Glimpsing the Future	Nicodemus gets his letter to attend Hogwarts and leaves in September – Cori sees him off with the rest of the family at the train station. His absence, and their little brother’s lack of magical ability, makes for an interesting home life – meaning, Cori begrudgingly avoids magic altogether, as the only household member able to use it. Despite being content, there is tension. When he comes back over breaks, he’s a Ravenclaw and he talks about his flying lessons and quidditch the most (not one to be left behind, Cori does some reading up on the game when she can). Cori feels eager to join him, to be someplace where she does not have to censor a crucial part of herself.
1890-May 1891 First Year	When her letter comes from Hogwarts, Cori lets her little brother peer over her shoulder as she reads it aloud to her younger cousin and Nicodemus; her older cousin and aunt, noticeably, find somewhere else in the home other than the kitchen to be. Uncle is pleased by the news when he comes home from work, but at this point his opinion does not matter (not as much as it probably should, but she just hasn’t felt close to him for some years). Despite her older brother being in Ravenclaw, Cori has no specific house in mind when she is called up next for the Sorting Ceremony. Hufflepuff is a bit of a surprise, but nothing to be ashamed of in her opinion. Everything is so new and wonderful, it’s easy to ignore the minor annoyances of being a middle class girl that she’d hoped to escape: there’s classes, new things to learn, a large library and everything is, quite literally, magical – plus, she gets to see more of Nicodemus. Overall, it’s a good first year.
Summer '91 Return to Reality	No one really asks her about her time at Hogwarts when she comes home for summer break – no one besides her energetic little brother and her curious muggle cousin, and even then they only dare to question her when it’s just the three of them (or four, when Nico gets wrangled into being interrogated too). Cori quickly realizes that, unfortunately, nothing has changed at home: magic is still something off limits… or so it feels, as her older cousin’s complaints of “poor marriage prospects” and “not wanting to marry a wizard” pop up more often than not; Aunty doesn’t discourage it openly, but Cori can’t stand to see the older woman so uncomfortable in her own home over the smallest things she mentions about Hogwarts, especially when none of it is directed at her; a part of her knows her aunt is trying, as she doesn’t leave the room anymore at the mention of magic, but it just doesn’t feel like enough. Put-out but keeping it to herself, Cori does the same thing she used to do: keeps everything Wizarding in her life all to herself. She counts the day until she can go back to school and be surrounded by other witches and wizards once more.
Sept. 1891-May 1894 Second-Fourth Year	Nicodemus’ friend circle has and, likely will, always be bigger than anything Cori can scrap together; as most of her classmates find out during her second year, she is an acquired taste. In the youthful of 12, she comes off as a touch arrogant as she makes a habit of correcting others during the few study groups she’s in; her housemates and yearmates quickly find that, while Cori is hard-working, she is also fiercely independent in her own reserved kind of way. Her grades are strong and, instead of overburdening herself with too many electives, she chooses to partake in clubs; dueling is only practical and wizard chess is fascinating. She is the first in class for Arithmancy, with a proclivity for numbers and patterns that makes the elective enjoyable. Cori falls into a pattern of studying, classes, and going to quidditch matches to watch her brother finally get to play as Beater. She is a bit of an unorthodox Hufflepuff, as a contrasting personality that could come across as aloof. As her third year draws to a close, she is starting to plan for her future… Her fourth year is spent the same as the previous two; since she never talks about Hogwarts or magic at home, her aunt is blissfully unaware of her dueling club membership and therefore cannot make her stop anytime soon; it’s not lying if no one asks (her fourth year is the year she truly learns that she doesn’t have to share things with others, that simply not saying anything is not in and of itself dishonesty). She still uses a borrowed chess set for matches and, while she would someday like to have her own, chooses to see it as more rewarding when she does win with a set of chessmen not her own. She also starts to learn that simply pointing mistakes does not stop them from occurring again, that further articulation works better before there can be action – so while she does not lose her bluntness, there is typically a follow-up with an explanation or solution to resolve the error in question (whether this makes her seem less… snobbish or arrogant, remains to be seen).
Sept. 1894 Start of Fifth Year	Cori returns to Hogwarts with her brother, Nicodemus. Her little brother, now twelve, still shows no signs of magic – she still loves him, as energetic and nosy as he is, but can’t help but worry for him nonetheless. Her O.W.Ls are approaching and she dreads the continued etiquette classes, the latter of which reminds her that there are societal expectations fast approaching her; soon, people outside of her aunt will start to wonder about her future, what finishing school she’s considering, how she’ll use her education, if she’s got her eyes on any aspiring gentlemen… The idea gives her a headache, but it's unavoidable. So, for now, she plays her cards close to her chest. She needs to do more research, look into things a bit more before she can even start to brace herself for the changes in her life her plans for the future will cause. (There’s no turning back now, however… but perhaps she will speak with Nico first, get his perspective on her thoughts…)